Video: Inside the Ron Paul Blimp

posted at 11:51 am on December 31, 2007 by Bryan

Slate delivers a report from inside the campaign’s most bizarre gambit: The Ron Paul blimp which, as the video points out, isn’t actually affiliated with the Paul campaign itself. It’s just a cult-like hanger-on financed independently and therefore not in a way that’s subject to campaign finance law. CFR did such a good job of getting money out of politics.

The blimp asks “Who is Ron Paul?” He’s a candidate whose supporters celebrate terrorist Guy Fawkes, spam online polls, irritate the holy hello out of bloggers who point out their candidate’s obvious flaws, and who has become an empty vessel into which everyone from brothel owners to true libertarians to leftwing anti-American agitators and assorted isolationists have poured their own political hopes and dreams. Paul is where the paleo right and the anarcho left meet for drinks.

The reality is that Ron Paul is a pro-life libertarian who runs as a Republican hawk in his Texas district when it’s convenient but who blames America for pretty much every bad thing that happens in the world, who votes against pork even while writing it into federal budgets and who accepts donations he doesn’t need from the racists at Stormfront. But try telling that to his supporters and you’re met with a wall of noise.

More: And here’s another place where the paleo right seems to be having a meetup with elements of the left.

Blowback

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where the paleo right seems to be having a meetup with elements of the left.

For a perfect display of these to factions coming together visit http://reddit.com/ Where Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and Keith Olbermann are considered gods. And the only “true” conservative republicans support impeachment and withdrawal from Iraq. Everyone else is a evil neocon. Read the comments on some of the stories they are hilarious.

The reality is that Mitt Romney is an abortion supporting pro-life democrat republican who runs as a Republican hawk in his Massachusetts state when it’s convenient but who blames “guns of unusual lethality” for pretty much every bad thing that happens in the world, who votes for abortion even while claiming his views have “evolved” and who accepts government run health care as a valid alternative while claiming the government “intrudes” on the abortion issue. But try telling that to his supporters and you’re met with a wall of noise.

The reality is that Huckabee is a pro-life religious nut who runs as a Republican hawk in his Arkansas State when it’s convenient but who blames lack of religion for pretty much every bad thing that happens in the world, who grants clemency to rapists and murderes while claiming he didnt and who accepts donations and presents and anything he is offered from anyone. But try telling that to his supporters and you’re met with a wall of noise.

The reality is that Fred Thompson is a pro-life republican who runs as a Republican hawk from his set of Law and Order when it’s convenient but who sits there and pretty much doesnt do anything to attempt to get elected, who votes for like two things and calls that a record and who accepts donations over the span of 3 days and barely reaches a quarter million. But try telling that to his supporters and you’re met with a wall of noise.

You know I don’t even have to look at top of the post anymore to see if Allah or Bryan wrote a post because just by reading it I can tell immediately whose it is just by the style.
Both Bryan and Allah are really good writers.

Separating his positions and extreme supporters, etc, I think the blimp is a cool thing. Not because it’s a blimp, but because a bunch of citizens got together to try to amplify a message they believe in. Democracy in action.

…And a bunch of us Paul supporters here in Chattanooga have produced a 30 minute commercial containing nothing but him speaking and have chipped in enough money to get it running on public access from now until the primary here. Funny how that free speech thing is supposed to work.

Yet nearly everyone here dogs the ever-lovin crap out of the blimp. If Romney or Fred or McCain had a blimp the righty blogosphere would be soiling itself talking about what a great idea it was.

Good luck with your party line candidates. If all we do is what we’ve always done, then all we’ll get is what we’ve always gotten.

I’m ready for change. I’m ready for Ron Paul.

Oh, and Bryan – I rest in the knowledge that all your witty sarc and opining do not change the facts. Ron Paul supports our Constitution more perfectly than any other candidate in the race. And you can’t prove otherwise.

If Romney or Fred or McCain had a blimp the righty blogosphere would be soiling itself talking about what a great idea it was.

Some ideas are stupid no matter what the source. However, some people have the good sense to not follow through on them. Unfortunately, this is where Ron Paul supporters truly distinguish themselves. That, and not being able to count on their fingers.

Since all Ron Paul supporters didn’t buy blimp time, by your take on logic none of them did. Contra-positive statements only work when the conditionals are absolute, which is what allows them to be logically equivalent.

Really, a math teacher should know this…as for me, I’ve only had one course in rocket science.

And a bunch of us Paul supporters here in Chattanooga have produced a 30 minute commercial containing nothing but him speaking and have chipped in enough money to get it running on public access from now until the primary here. Funny how that free speech thing is supposed to work.